‘Viadoom’ the sequel, coming Friday to a Seattle street near you

Originally published April 26, 2016 at 7:53 am
Updated April 27, 2016 at 12:05 pm

In October 2011, as part of the Alaskan Way Viaduct was torn down, commuters endured a nine-day shutdown. It started OK, then got really bad. As another shutdown looms, know this: Seattle has gained about 45,000 people since 2011.

But some of the details from Seattle Times transportation reporter Mike Lindblom in 2011 sound somewhat normal when you fast-forward nearly five years.

“Traffic entering Seattle on I-5 was stop-and-go from Shoreline to downtown, starting as early as 3 p.m. and continuing past 6 p.m.,” Lindblom wrote Oct. 27, 2011.

He added: “Drivers had a hard time leaving South Lake Union in late afternoon, as actual gridlock — cars stuck at intersections blocking the cross-traffic during a green light — spread from Mercer Street to Denny Way.”

A traffic engineer told Lindblom the freeways could not recover after a series of early-afternoon stalls and minor crashes.

In other words, 2011’s Viadoom sounds like 2016’s nearly-every-day doom, as a growing economy, a construction boom and rising population stress Seattle’s transportation infrastructure.

Despite the population increase, it seems no more people will be pushed onto Seattle streets this time than were last time. Traffic on the viaduct has remained at about 90,000 vehicle trips per weekday since 2011.

In 2011, transportation officials added buses on westside routes, created more water-taxi parking, put more traffic police on duty in Sodo, added park-and-ride space in Tukwila, along with a few other changes. They asked people to avoid rush hour, and to walk, bike and take transit instead of using Highway 99. Transportation managers are planning similar measures for Viadoom II.

Last time around, the warnings seemed to have some effect. Analysts estimated driving declined by about 20 percent. One reader sent a raving review to The Seattle Times: “To my Sea-town homies and WSDOT for the way we all handled ‘Viadoom.’ It was the chillest ‘Carmageddon’ ever.”

With luck, we’ll have sunny skies and chill commuters on our packed freeways — and perhaps the California transplants that Seattle natives like to blame for gridlock will feel right at home.